Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-07-04
THE PANHANDLE.
EE"@,a ;he C5pijaisst ind Home. Seeker
FIX h,.ir Gaz., the Hue for an Ia-
yet,,m.n II, lhe Other for Is Rome.
a Fortune 10 he Made in Land in tho Next
Few YeHrs-The Poor Man wan Grow
Bicb, and the Rich Man Richer.

, 1rGLl air as lGNlSOralllG SIS Cl2m payne
and IS refreshing as If dst waited from
The sea; il is devoid OF the disagraeable
incidents Of dust and smoke Tls man
with Al immaculate shirt bosom need not
fer 10 expose ii 80 days Journey IL The
ladies' car of the Denver RCed. AT
lis end lie might without G blush step
IRON the car to the psTlOr or OGll rom.
In the popular slarg Of the CAV, the Den
yer IS "a daisy railroad" Is cars are
new, cleGn gnd comfortable, It's track as
smooth es any in the state, and it- OIL
Gals and employees, from president to
porter, souls Of CleyeTness. But the
most attractive feature Of such trip is
( the opportunity which il gives to Cbservant
/ passengers 10 study the condition and ne
/ possibilities Of the coming empire of the
] sUU-hwest-tne Panhandle OF Texas. A
lew weeks back, while travelling through
eastern states, l was surprised 81 the in
| teTest shown everywhere in this section,
! On every map Of TeXas-anG they are
rapidly increasing IN circulation IN the
east-Was traced pencil lines through the
! Panhandle, which betrayed the mental
speculations Of some Would-De
settler. People who had never
! been further west than the
! Mississippi spoke Of it as the future res
lervOir Of the tide Of western immigra-
! ton. It's resources were unquestiCned;
! all seemed to regard it as the mos desir-
| able section open to q man seeking q
| home in the west. How the Panhandle
attained this well-deserVed reputation
| / do not know; it has had
| but little advertising, and
/ has been its own spokesman.
The fact remains, and is attested
by the rapidly changing conditions Of the
country, that the eyes Of speculative cap
ital and home-seekers the world over are
fixed upon the Panhandle. This interest
is bringing forth its legitimate fruits the
hammer OF development has taken on g
clrar, steady ring; tents are giving way
to cabins and cabins TO neat wooden
dwellings; blades of tall, productive corn
CYeTshadOw Wondering leaves Of grass;
the buzz OF machinery IN many enclosures
browns the songs and malediCtiOns Of
the cowboy. The smoke of the locomo-
tive has permeated the atmosphere CT the
plains, and when its first mists shall have
cleared away civilization, with all its sttri-
butes, its Injuries, its convcnicnceS, its
tollies, its vices, will be found thoroughly
6ntrenChed.
OF what arrant nonsense Henry George
isssguilty. 1t would seem that sympathy
for "the lsndless poor is sheer senti-
mentaIism when 500, 900 families might
HHd comfortable homes in the Panhandle
.of Texas almost for coming, II Tennes-
See, not long since, l was shown across
fsIm Of 100 acres which mad
recently been purchased for 535
per acre. The land, was considered the
best in the neighborhood, and yet its
owner was compelled TO rely upon fer
tiljZers. to produce an average crop. The
f41Es of that farm would buy 1900 sores
in the Panhandle, worth intrin-
sicslly, three times as much
per acre as the Tennessee land.
How can the farmers of the east remain
content cramped up IN little homesteads
OF fifty and one hundred acres, burdened
with heavy mortgages which only the
IabOrs Of 2 lifetime can lift, when pros
porous, happy homes are to be had on
such easy terms in the west? It must
be ignorance of the resources of
thar west which detaius them. Surely
Fl tile farmer who ekes out bare living
among the rocks and mountains and ssnd
hills OF the east could realize that his
humble home might be exchanged for
enough rich territory in Texas TO entitle
him to 8 baronetcy il it were English
soil, he would speedily volunteer in the
enthusiastic army Of pioneers. The /
opportunity of 1887 VIII never
be repeated Five years ago
sQ9pe of the finest lands in the Panhandle |
Bere sold for 81 an acre. In five years
&hose lands have thri5bled and quad |
Fhpled in value. The man who makes g |
iudiCiOus investment of $4,000 IN Panhsn- |
ale lands. now will be able at the end Of /
anot lseS{t of five years to close out mis- |
investment at q profit of $4,000, |
though bear-like he should enter 8 cave
and sleep through the whole intermediate /
period
There was time when q man would
have as so n thought OF planting bananas
in New Foundland. as of sowing wheat in
the Panhandle, and that time was not
long ago. Now any well informed
man is ready to vouch for
the opinion that this section is destined
to be the gransrY of the southwest This
is not fiction invented by land spe cula-
tors; it is the deliberate Judgment Of
men who have tested the matter by the
olunb-line Of experience. Corrobora-
i've evidence is so strong
The Wayfaring man needs no
other testimony than that furnished
)y his own observation. All along the
Inc of the Fort Worth and Denver from
Wichita Falls (once supposed to be out
If the agricultural belt) to Qusnsh
here are fields of corn and wheat in the
shock which will exceed in production
he best farms in Eastern and Central
Texas. In the Office of the Advance
1t this place, Mir. w. W. West, the editor,
showed me to-day some splendid speci-
mems Of agricultural products, raised 1
within four miles OF Quanah. These
specimens were selected as fair averages
1f the crops from which they were taken. ,
In the following statement Of {
the production of these CROPS,
corn alone is estimated and Judging by
he sample and the outlook it will exceed
-ather than fall below the estimate: I
Corn, torty-tve bushels per acre.
Oats, siIty-tiVe bushels per acre,
Wheat, twenty-five bushels per acre.
Millett, four tons per acre.
Egyptian corn, four tons per scre.
Rye, very fine.
Egyptian grass, six feet tall.
The natural growth of the country is ,
,Od bearing vegetation. The soil is {
black aud chocolate wax, with Just sufi-
.ient sand to scour. plow. 1t is well